


Better Be Home Soon

by Costello_Music



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Gen, Mentions Peter Parker and Tony Stark, Missing Scene, Where was the Aunt May love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-12
Updated: 2018-06-12
Packaged: 2019-05-21 09:31:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14912843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Costello_Music/pseuds/Costello_Music
Summary: All Ned knew was that Peter had gone off to presumably fight the aliens attacking New York. It should have clicked far sooner just what happened, considering Tony Stark's face all over the news and Peter's sudden refusal to apparently look at his phone.And what about May.





	Better Be Home Soon

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing anything not academic in about four years. I thought I was only capable of a drabble, guess I was wrong. Also actually having to format things is weird so there is a high chance I screwed it up. I'll fix anything as soon as I notice them. 
> 
> This was inspired by my second watch of Infinity War with the screens screaming about Tony Stark's disappearance and I thought, wait. What about Peter? What about Aunt May? How does she find out?

It should have clicked much sooner than it did. 

It might not be everyday alien spaceships hovered over and attacked New York, but it wasn’t unheard of either. It was a reality they had faced and sure he might only have been nine years old when the last attack happened, but there were few who would forget something like that. It’s irrelevant that he’d been in school at the time and hadn’t actually seen the ships or destruction in person. Irrelevant that his class hadn’t even heard something was wrong until well after the fact. 

And it looked like this time they weren’t going to see it either. Except for Peter. 

_“Hey Ned, I need you to cause a distraction”_

_That was odd. But the reason for it was clear instantly when he saw the ships hovering above the city. He didn’t even think about why Peter would be asking this. It was his time to shine. Guy in the chair. How much truth was in his reaction was also irrelevant._

_“Oh my God we’re going to die!” He was slightly proud of the chaos this caused. He didn’t even think about saying goodbye._

It was lucky for Peter that the teachers were meeting them there and weren’t on the bus because he didn’t think he could easily explain that one away. How Peter was on the bus when they left and not when they arrived. But saying Peter was ill at the last second and hadn’t gotten on the bus at all was easy. And the other kids were too panicked still to confirm or deny this so he felt good that they were in the clear. Well maybe MJ wasn’t fooled but that was officially Peter’s problem. 

They were all apprehensive about getting back to the city, about what they’d see or find out once they got back. For a large city it was a small city and everyone knew someone who had lost someone in the first attack, if they hadn’t lost someone themselves. At first the teachers didn’t believe them (or maybe didn’t want to) but the reports started coming in almost instantly and after that they felt it was safer to stay where they were. The café the teachers were waiting at had the news running on screens and they weren’t the only group gathered around it. The instinct was strong to call your parents, call your friends, call anyone you need to but MJ was quick to point out that once the lines got jammed they’d be basically stranded so maybe text guys? 

He didn’t think about telling May then. There was no reason too. This wasn’t anything Spiderman hadn’t dealt with before. … Well it was but Ironman was there and some other Avenger so surely he’d be fine. Plus it was all over the news so she can’t have missed it. 

  
All in all this attack was over fairly quickly. The spaceships took off again in less than an hour after arriving. Texts and calls were still coming through, but slowly, and it seemed that no one they knew were hurt or even there so the field trip continued. Ned thought that this was a ballsy move since no one was really taking anything in but the bus driver had seem unconcerned and wouldn’t be back until three o’clock anyway so the teachers probably had no choice in the end. 

He sent Peter a quick text that took ages to get through, so was unconcerned when there was no reply. The news coverage had lost sight of Spiderman after he took off after the unidentified Avenger. They weren’t that far out of the city so Ned half expected Peter to show up anyway expecting everyone to believe he’d been here the entire time because sometimes he was subtle like that. He was so busy trying to think of excuses for this scenario that suddenly the bus was here and it was time to head back. 

“Ha, I thought he’d be stupid enough to show up again,” Mj’s murmured beside him as they walked up to the bus. 

“What, why, what, no,” it wasn’t the most eloquent response even Ned could concede that. They paused beside the bus for a long moment, eyeing each other. Ned’s eyes narrowed. Somehow this was his problem now.

“What do you know?” he asked as she rolled her eyes and pushed him gently to the stairs of the bus. 

“More than you idiots think. But don’t worry. I’m probably the only one,” she replied, and gestured for him to move on. Ned had a choice now, to confirm or deny everything and he did what every good guy-in-the-chair would do. Deny everything. 

He shrugged. “Well he probably went home so you’ll have to bring whatever you’re thinking up with him.” 

Yes. Nailed it. He turned and found his seat still unoccupied. MJ didn’t look convinced as she followed him onto the bus but didn’t bring it up again for the rest of the ride home. Which took an agonizing eternity in Ned’s opinion with the extra traffic flooding in and the sudden road closures from the attack. 

It was during this ride back that reports of Tony Stark’s disappearance came in. MJ was the first to check the reports on her phone and even then it didn’t click. Not even when he checked them out for himself. 

_Tony Stark, also known as Ironman, has disappeared._  
_Tony Stark last seen following the recent alien attackers_  
_Tony Stark thought to be last seen entering the spaceship that attacked New York_  
_No word on the whereabouts of Tony Stark_

His phone (like everyone else’s) was blowing up with texts and alerts as the network evidently recovered. From his parents, to his out of town relatives, to his friends not on this trip. It didn’t click then that something was wrong. That someone was missing from these messages, until the messages slowed and he could finally scroll down without new messages or alerts from other apps blocking his screen. 

Peter hadn’t responded yet. 

Ned wasn’t sure if he should panic yet. Peter was good at responding to his messages, and he did have a bad habit of answering calls or responding to texts while in the middle of something that really should have all his attention. He’d explained that that was because of Karen, the AI in his suit, who filtered them and bought what she thought was important to his attention when she got them. But at the same time Peter also had the bad habit of dismissing these notifications with the intention of responding and not actually doing it until hours later (likely when prompted again by Karen). So this was in the grey area of time where the message didn’t warrant an immediate response but Karen hadn’t reminded him yet so he was likely distracted. 

Or hurt. 

Ned pushed that thought down. Unlike most of Spiderman’s antics this had had full media coverage and surely if he’d been hurt they would have reported that. They’d watched (mostly) the whole thing. Granted the view had been obscured for most of it and it was mostly the debris flying around they could see but Spiderman had been seen swinging out of the scene. So he had to be all right, right? 

They were close to the school now. Ned fired off another quick text to Peter hoping to bypass Karen’s filters, if he was still wearing the suit. 

_Hey Pete. SOS. Are you ok? We’re almost back at school btw_

There was no immediate response but he also might not still be in the suit. He sent another.

_I’m coming by. I’ll wait for you at your place. Aliens???_

There was no response to either message as the bus reached the school gates where a flood of parents were waiting. Ned scanned the crowd but couldn’t see his parents (he knew they were fine and they were cool with him hanging at Peter’s) but he couldn’t see May either. Which was probably a good sign. He hoped anyway. Cause if May wasn’t there then she knew that Peter hadn’t come on the trip in the end. 

“So does this mean we don’t have school tomorrow Mr Harrington?” one of the kids at the back of the bus asked. There were a few murmurs to this. Mr Harrington looked back.

“Of course we do. I expect you all to be here by the time the bell rings, just like every day.” He replied. “Now some of your parents seem to have come to collect you so make sure your name is ticked off before you go.”

There was a scramble as everyone reached for their bags and lined up to get off the bus. MJ nodded to him as she stood up. 

“See you both tomorrow,” she said as Ned got up. 

“Yeah. See you then,” he replied.  


  
It took twenty minutes to get from school to Peter’s place. Thirty if you were unlucky and missed the train connection. Ned felt like he got there in record time after the slow crawl through the city in the bus. 

He kept checking his phone. There was no response and the headlines weren’t changing. They didn’t change as he got off the train and they didn’t change while he got in the elevator to get to Peter’s apartment. 

It still didn’t click. 

The lights were on in Peter’s apartment but it was May who answered the door. She didn’t look distressed but her face fell when she saw Ned. 

“Peter’s not with you?” she asked instead of greeting him. She gestured for him to come in. Ned put his bag down by the door as he entered the apartment. The lights were off in Peter’s room but Ned figured he wasn’t here. May’s reaction made that clear enough.

“No. He went off to help with the aliens. Or at least I think he did. He asked me to cause a distraction,” he said, turning his eyes to the TV as he sat down. It was muted but the reports of Tony Stark’s disappearance were dominating the screen. 

May sighed and closed her eyes. She opened them again and also looked at the TV, leaning against the back of the couch. 

“I thought so. But by the time I got to the news it was all about Tony Stark disappearing and there was nothing on who else was there. Some people were saying Spiderman was there but others were saying it was just Ironman. There was no consistent answer.”

Ned looked down. 

“I’m sorry. But he definitely went off. But if he’s not here he might be helping with the clean-up. He told me he does that sometimes.”

May nodded. “Yes I thought so too. And the reports aren’t showing that they’re too focused on Tony.”

Ned laughed humourlessly. “Well hopefully they get bored of that soon and show us some of that. Though Peter might come back before that happens.”

There was silence in the apartment as they turned their attention back to the news. The news report moved on to other parts of the city but the scrolling headline underneath didn’t change. It then moved on to other bits of national news. They watched as the report turned back to the attack on the city and onto footage of the space ship flying away. May unmuted it. 

_“… Recent reports claim that Tony Stark was last seen flying towards the retreating spaceship. The reasons for this are unclear but sources say that he is trapped on that spaceship. More on this on the 7 report...”_

Ned stared in horror. It took him far longer than it should have to click about what happened but there it was. He’d seen this footage a hundred times already but this time he saw it. There was another small speck following the spaceship before Ironman flew after it. And that spec could only be one person. 

“Oh. Oh no.” he exclaimed before he could stop himself. May looked at him. 

“Ned, what’s wrong?” she asked. He pointed at the screen as the full implication hit him. He almost couldn’t form the words. 

“I know where Peter’s gone. Why he won’t answer his phone,” he paused and turned to May. “He’s on that spaceship too.” 

The words hung dead in the air as he spoke them. May’s eyes widened in horror but she didn’t say anything. Now that it had clicked he couldn’t get it to unclick. There was no other explanation. He desperately turned back to the TV hoping he was wrong but he knew he wasn’t. If Peter really were helping clean-up he would have responded by now. If he was hurt Karen would have at least alerted May by now, or someone would have. But they hadn’t. There was only one explanation. 

May was still as the report continued. Ned looked down unable to look her in the eye. He looked up again when the TV was switched off. May had her back to him but he could see her shaking slightly. He turned away, looking down at his hands for a lack of anything better to focus on. Now that he had thought about it he didn’t want to think about it. 

“Ned,” May’s voice broke the silence. There were tears in her voice and while her eyes were shiny they hadn’t yet fallen. “Have you seen my phone?” 

He jumped up, perhaps a little too quickly, shaking his head. “No. No I haven’t” 

His eyes wildly searched the apartment, not really looking long enough to be of any use. There was another uneasy silence as they searched the apartment for her phone. In the end it had been in front of them on the coffee table when May found it. 

May scrolled through her contacts to the list she had dreaded using. She wasn’t sure if Peter knew but once Tony had offered the ‘internship’ he had given her a couple of numbers for in case of emergency. And when she had found out about his Spiderman activities and she had chewed him out, just a little bit, he had added a couple more. 

_“… I promise you. No harm will come to him if I can help it. However I can’t promise the same thing for myself so if you can’t reach me in an emergency. Call Happy. If that doesn’t work my lovely fiancée Pepper should be you next point of call. Did I mention we are engaged now. Yeah it just happened the other day. Funny story…”_

The phone almost rang out. 

“Ms Parker.” Happy sounded almost frantic for once. “I’m sorry but we have no word on Mr Stark right now so if Peter…”

May cut him off, responding in the same collected but almost frantic tone.

“Happy, Peter is missing.” 

There was a long pause before a soft shit came through the line. “I take it you’re sure of this.”

“Of course. Please. My nephew as missing but I don’t know who else to turn to. Happy he was Spiderman at the time.”

There was another pause as faint voices on the other side of the line conferred. May looked around the apartment. Ned was hunched on the couch pointedly not looking at her. Dinner was bubbling softly on the stove. Meatloaf incidents aside she had fed herself and a young boy for years without staring or poisoning themselves, but this one might also turn out to be a disaster. The door to Peter’s room gaped open almost ominously. She really should turn on the light in there. 

The murmuring on the other side of the line stopped and a different voice responded to her. 

“Hi May. I’m sure you know that Tony is missing too. I just talked to FRIDAY and she confirmed that she’s lost connection with Karen. Peter is most likely with Tony. We’ll get them back and I’m sure he’ll keep Peter safe until then,” Pepper had her CEO voice on. But it was calm and friendly and despite herself May relaxed a fraction. 

“Ms Potts. Thank-you”

“No please. Call me Pepper. This one is a new one for Tony but it’s also not unheard of for his to disappear into the aether without a word of warning. I don’t know how but he always lands on his feet. He’ll bring Peter home so help me, and he’ll have time to return him so you before I kill him myself,” her voice took on a harder edge as a bit of hysteria crept in. Without missing a beat she added calmly; “Happy is on his way. So if you’d like to come to the Avengers compound we can sort out this mess together and I can update you with what we know.”

May blinked. Ned looked up. The apartment was quiet enough that he could faintly hear Pepper’s voice through the speaker. 

“That would be wonderful. Thank-you,” May replied. 

“Great. We’ll see you in about an hour then,” Pepper said before the connection went dead.

May put the phone back in her bag and wiped her eyes. 

“Do. Do you think they know where he is?” Ned hesitantly asked from the couch where he’s been sitting for the entire conversation, roughly wiping the tears from his own eyes. May straighten her shoulders and looked at him. 

“No. At least I don’t know. Apparently FRIDAY or whoever could confirm that he’s with Tony though. So I’m heading over to see if we can sort this out,” she replied with a shaky smile. 

“Can I come too?” Ned burst out. “Please I’m his guy-in-the-chair.” 

May looked him in the eye. 

“Not right now Ned. I’m sorry but I don’t know what’s happening over there and if I’m going to be underfoot let alone you.”

Ned’s shoulders slumped. May walked over to him and knelt in front of the couch, her hand reassuring on the armrest. 

“So can I ask you a huge favour? I need you to stay in the city in case he pops up. Just for tonight. Just for tomorrow. And then if there’s still nothing you can come and help us then,” She promised. 

He hoped it wouldn’t come to that. That they were both wrong. That Peter was still in the city and not God knows where in outer space. Cause that was crazy. That didn’t happen. That wasn’t happening. Ned swallowed before replying. “I can do that.” 

May patted the armrest as she got up.

“Thanks Ned. And I promise that I’ll update you with anything we know.” 

Almost mechanically she went into the kitchen and turned everything off. She didn’t even think about cleaning up as she ran through a mental list of what she would need, what Peter would need when they found him. Because they would find him. 

Ned shuffled over to grab his backpack. May looked over to him. 

“Do you want me to call your parents?” She asked. Ned shook his head. 

“No. No its fine. What would I say to them anyway? Do you want me to leave a note? For Peter though? In case he comes back?” He gestured to his room. May looked over, face falling slightly. 

“Yes. If you want to leave one that would be great.”

Ned dropped his bag and started to rummage through it for a piece of paper. May walked over to Peter’s door and looked in. 

Ned was suddenly beside her. 

“He’ll come back. I’m sure he will. He’s got to come tell me about being in an actual space ship and how like Star Wars it is,” he sounded hopefully. May reached across and squeezed his shoulder.

“Thanks Ned. I’m sure you’re right and he’ll be ok.”


End file.
